Separating the Sheep from the Goats!

“Come Reason”
Newsletter of Denise Smith
Volume no.12-06
December 18, 2006

The Separating of the Sheep from the Goats!

From the bible we see Jesus speaking of the separating of the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tares and both being in the kingdom… however what is it really that the Gospel’s tell us will be the way that the sheep will be known from the goats and the wheat from the tares?

Jesus says… “my sheep hear my voice and to another they will not hearken”. Jesus states, “if you love me keep my commandments”. Jesus speaks of the angels coming to the kingdom and separating the tares first and them being bundled and cast out and the wheat begin gathered and brought into the barn. We’ve heard these things for years and almost all in church speak of these things happening and put them into the perspective of being sometime in the future.. instead of in going on continually and eternally as God is. So what does God say about these things?

The word of God, what God gives is always the tool of separation. It is the sword, the word of the mouth of God that divides and it is the word of Jesus that brings division just as He said.. “I came not to bring peace but division”, and speaks of dividing people from other people… and setting at variance families, as well as making men free! The word of God that Jesus spake is what brings the division, the separation, as the word of God always has. It is what separates the wheat from the tares, the sheep from the goats, as well as the believer from the unbeliever. It separates people from their families.. it separates people from their lands, their cultures and from their traditions… the sword of God… the word of God from the mouth of God.. and that sword is doing the same thing today.

Today, we have come to a point that we as people have had the words of Jesus Christ in written form, even written in red leaping from the pages of our bibles, in our own language and the provision of God in this nation that our people are educated for the most part, to have the capacity to be able to read it for ourselves, without having to have someone teach us. We can pick up the bible and read it and see what it is that those men and women of the Old Testament spoke of hearing and doing and the theme of the bible. It was and is hearing God and obeying God and those that did and those that did not. God’s promise of a Messiah, and the final sending of the Son of God to the people of God.. and the requirement of God as always was to hear Him and obey what He said. So what is it that we have today that separates the sheep from the goats… the wheat from the tares.. and the believer from the unbeliever?

It is the word of God… given by Jesus Christ! It is what Jesus referred to when saying, “had I not come you would not have known sin, however now that I have, you have no further cloak for your sin”. We have no excuse. We have no further covering… we know what it is that is recorded to have been said and commanded by Jesus, and we have no excuse for not following it other than rejecting of Him and the God who sent Him.

It was Jesus, that is recorded in the witness of two or more, that the Almighty thunder from His mouth, “This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased… HEAR HIM”. Jesus is recorded to be the Word of God made flesh.. manifested just as God promised, and dwelling among those that knew of the promise and knew what was recorded in the scriptures, speaking of Him. The one the scriptures bore witness of … that was promised was there… sent.. and confirmed by the Almighty, by the word of His mouth directly, to be the one that was to be heard. There is no other record found in the bible where the Almighty has ever been witnessed to have been heard to say such regarding any one else… so what is it that separates the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tares, the believer from the unbeliever? It is the word of God spoken in Jesus Christ!

What we are seeing today is that separation like never before. God is calling out those that have professed for years that they love Jesus and that they love the God who sent Him, to see that claiming such things as the Pharisees did of Jesus time is not enough. Claiming to be the seed of Abraham.. and disciples of the law of Moses isn’t enough. It wasn’t in the days of Jesus and it is not today. Those that are the sheep, are those that hear what it is that God spoke through Jesus Christ and follow it.. not hearkening to another… and it’s as simple as that. Just as Jesus said.. “if you love me keep MY commandments”. Jesus doesn’t tell His followers… those that were chosen by Him through God to keep “THE COMMANDMENTS”… He says clearly… “if you love me keep MY commandments”. Jesus is the way, provided by God to not know whether you are one of His own… but also to know God the Father and without following the WAY, provided by God… Jesus states that no man can come to the Father.

So not only does the word of God in Jesus Christ separate the wheat from the tare, the sheep from the goats, that happens every day.. all day .. and is eternal! It happens in the heart of each of us as we come to the realization that what we have said is what we must walk in and follow.. .and that being a hearer of the word is not sufficient.. we must be doers of God’s word as well.

That’s what Jesus said and God has not changed. No more than did God allow His commandments in any other.. or through any other to be ignored and His people to know Him, the same is true now as well. God has not changed… the bible does not speak and record years and years of God giving words that were not followed and giving people time and time to turn from their wicked ways of not following what He told them… to send His Son to be totally ignored and His words not to be followed… and for people of God to think that they are going to be able to know the Father.. to be in a righteous relationship with the Father … and the Son… by totally ignoring what God gave to Jesus as commandments for His followers to not only observe…but also to teach.

So, no matter how many of you think that you can simply confess with your mouth that you believe in Jesus and that you believe that His blood has covered your sins and that you have righteousness in what Jesus did and do not have to have your own righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees… Jesus and the God who sent Him says otherwise.

If someone has convinced you that all you have to do is believe… God says that you have been beguiled.. that believing is following and doing what it is that is taught and commanded of Jesus Christ. That if you have hearkened to the voice of Paul.. who has told you that you can simply confess with your mouth and believe in your heart, and do not have to do what Jesus commanded that His followers were to do and they did.. then you have simply hearkened to another voice other than Jesus Christ and His Sheep do not do such things! Jesus warned His disciples of the leaven of the Pharisee.. and He also warned of those that would come after him that were it possible would lead the very elect astray and yet the bible records that those that were not led astray, were those that not only knew the words of Jesus Christ and His teachings, but observed them.

So in closing, the time is at hand! The kingdom of heaven has come and it’s time to enter in… and those that have ears to hear and eyes to see open them to see that if you love Jesus Christ and truly believe that He is the sent of God.. the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no man can come to the Father other than by Him, it’s time to let His words be your way, and your judge. God gave those words to Him to be the judge of the quick and the dead as well as the way! His words are what separate the sheep from the goats and the wheat from the tares.. and the believer from the unbeliever… and it is not in reading them… nor is it in saying them… or quoting them… or hearing them… it is in doing them!

“If you love me KEEP my commandments”! If you say that you know Him, and are not keeping His commandments… then according to the word of God, and the testimony of a man who was a believer of Jesus’ words… you are a liar and the truth is not in you. It is only those that truly believe that Jesus is the sent of God.. that Jesus is the only way to the Father… that will not hearken to another… but will keep His commandments.. and will know they are His sheep, as the disciples in the bible did …. for they state clearly… “we know that we know Him, because we keep His commandments”!

ASK GOD, HEAR GOD, KNOW GOD!